


Vanished

by maplemarcher



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Minecraft Story Mode
Genre: Angst, Axel is worried, I honestly don't know what to tag this as, M/M, Olivia is too, Season 1 Episode 8, but on Axel and Olivia's side, it's less about lukaxel and more about the time that Jesse and co spend going through portals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 10:55:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18497488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maplemarcher/pseuds/maplemarcher
Summary: Jesse, Lukas, Petra, and Ivor are missing. Axel and Olivia's search for them isn't going well. Luckily for them, someone who may have answers turns up.





	Vanished

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there!! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted! I sliced a couple fingers open while doing dishes, and I couldn't type for a little while :( But I'm healed and I'm back!
> 
> As for notes about the story, it's just a little something I whipped up to get back into the groove after not being able to write for a while and I decided to post it ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

     It’s been two months. Two months since Jesse, Petra, Lukas, and Ivor went missing without a trace. It’s like they vanished into thin air, leaving absolutely nothing behind. Interestingly, Aiden and the rest of the Blaze Rods are gone too. Axel would be lying if he said he didn’t think those shitheads had anything to do with the disappearance of his friends.

     He and Olivia have been searching tirelessly. Word has gotten out to the town that the rest of the New Order has gone missing, and it’s begun to cause a bit of a panic. The citizens are worried about their heroes, wondering what happened to them, what’s preventing them from coming home, and if whatever made them disappear is a threat to them too. Axel and Olivia have done their best to keep everyone calm, and for the most part, it’s working. People are listening to their reassurances, taking comfort in hearing them say everything is going to be alright.

     In reality, though, Axel’s right there with them. The five of them have been through unspeakable dangers and gotten out alive, but this is worrisome. No one’s ever just  _ left,  _ gone,  _ poof  _ with no hint of where they went or how they got there. Wherever they are, he’s sure his friends didn’t intend to end up there or spend such a long time away. He’s sure that they’re trying to find their way home just as hard as they’re trying to find them. That much he knows is true. He just doesn’t know if they’re alive to do it.

     It’s a dark throught, but not an entirely unrealistic one. Everywhere he and Olivia go, he prepares himself for finding a corpse. Or two. Or three. Or four. It keeps him awake at night. This is worse than when Petra went missing. Axel had had a somewhat decent idea of where she was then, but he has no idea where anyone is now. On top of that, there are  _ four  _ of his friends missing instead of just one.

     The hall is unbearably quiet. Most of the time, when Axel’s there, he’s by himself. He and Olivia don’t team up much with the search. They cover more ground that way. It makes it lonely, but efficient. Axel finds himself spending a lot of time in Lukas’ room, thumbing through his manuscripts that he’s only just begun editing, tracing the loops of his handwriting with his fingertips, sitting on his bed and holding his pillow. He remembers waking up earlier than he had to on the day they left for the jungle temple, looking at Lukas’ sleeping face and his mussed hair in the weak early morning light coming in through the window. That morning, the pillow had smelled like Lukas’ shampoo, the pillowcase still damp where his hair had dried during the night after his shower. Now, it hardly has a scent.

     Axel’s sitting at Lukas’ desk, looking at the edits in his manuscripts written in bright red ink for what must be the hundredth time, when he hears a soft knock on the open door behind him. He turns to see Olivia leaning against it, arms crossed, brow furrowed, the corners of her mouth tugged downwards into a frown, and dark circles under her eyes. She hasn’t been sleeping well either, it seems.

     “Hey,” Axel says. “Any luck?” He knows the answer. She wouldn’t be looking at him like that otherwise.

     “No,” Olivia sighs. “Not a trace. I even went back to the jungle temple. I saw something that looked like a portal, but my flint and steel wouldn’t light it.”

     “What about the enchanted flint and steel?”

     “I can’t find it anywhere. I think Jesse still has it.”

     Axel straightens. “What if it lit that portal?”

     “You think?” Olivia says, her eyebrows raised.

     “It’s the best lead we’ve had since they went missing. We’ve got to go back there.”

     “I already told you, the portal wasn’t lit.”

     “Right,” Axel says, standing up, “but what if we find another enchanted flint and steel there? It’s worth a shot, right?”

     Olivia is visibly hesitating. “We wiped that temple  _ clean,  _ Axel. I went through it again when I went back there to look for everybody, and I didn’t find anything.”

     “What, so you’re saying we give up?” he demands.

     “I’m just saying, our energy would probably be better spent somewhere else,” she says. “There are a few places we still haven’t looked.”

     “Yeah, and we’ll find the same thing we’ve found everywhere else.  _ Nothing.” _

     “You don’t know that—”

     “Uh, yeah, I  _ do  _ know that! I know that I’ve looked  _ everywhere  _ for  _ two fucking months  _ and found absolutely  _ no  _ trace of our friends, no hints where they went,  _ nothing!”  _ He’s shouting now. Olivia doesn’t flinch; she’s known him almost their whole lives, long enough to get used to his occasional outbursts. “But I know that there’s a place where we have a clue.    
One place!  _ One!  _ And you want to go  _ somewhere else?  _ Don’t you care about  _ any  _ of them?!”

     “Of course I do! I want to find them as much as you do!”

     “Then why are you running away from the only clue we have?!”

     “What if we get lost too? What happens then?”

_      “Seriously,  _ Olivia? Do you hear how selfish you sound?” Axel fumes, clenching and unclenching his fists.

     “Oh,  _ I’m  _ the one being selfish?” Olivia snaps. “You’re the one who’s talking about running off with everyone else gone!”

     “We go on adventures all the time! All five of us are gone  _ all the time!” _

     “This is  _ different,  _ Axel! No one knows where Jesse and the others went! No one knows if they’re coming back! We can’t try to follow them! We have a responsibility! What would Beacontown do if we went missing too?”

     “I don’t really care,” Axel says shortly, crossing his arms.

     “You  _ have  _ to care! You’re a hero! You’re a leader! People  _ look up to you!  _ You can’t just abandon them!” Olivia argues. She’s more than a foot shorter than him, but the intensity of her glare makes him feel small. “This is what we signed up for. This is what being a hero means. What being a  _ leader  _ means. It means having to sacrifice things for the good of everyone else. Even if it—” Her voice cracks. She’s trembling. She presses her hand to her mouth, blinking back tears.

     “Olivia…” Axel feels his anger beginning to evaporate. 

     “Even if it means we n-never see them again,” Olivia finishes, voice quiet and wavering. There’s a heavy silence as she wipes her tears, her mascara smearing. Axel envelops her in a hug, and she leans into him heavily, still shaking.

     “We’re gonna see them again,” Axel soothes. “They’re not gone forever.”

     “What if they are?”

     He holds her tighter. “They’re  _ not.” _

     Olivia sighs. The fight has clearly left her. They both hardly have any left anyway. Exhaustive searches have run them ragged, and their fatigue is beginning to get impossible to hide. Axel wonders what they’ll do if their friends never come back home. It makes his throat constrict painfully. No more handshakes with Jesse, no more banter with Petra, no more of Ivor’s irritating yet endearing and sometimes helpful lectures, no more nights with Lukas pressed against him—No. He can’t think like that right now.

     “Hey, why don’t we go grab a bite to eat or something?” Axel suggests. “Clear our heads and figure out what to do next?”

     “That sounds like a good idea,” Olivia says. She wipes her face and takes a deep breath to compose herself.

     Their footsteps echo in the quiet emptiness of the hall. Axel’s anxious to get outside. Beacontown’s midday bustle is bound to be a good distraction, and the air won’t be so stale. Before the two of them can leave the hall, however, they encounter an unfamiliar figure.

     There’s a woman Axel has never seen before in the treasure room. She’s incredibly pale, is wearing red and black robes, and has light blue hair. She straightens and turns to face them when they enter, a smile on her face.

     “Uh, hi,” Axel says. People don’t typically barge into the hall.

     “Hello!” the woman says brightly. Her voice is...odd. She sounds like she’s hosting some sort of game show. “Are you Axel? And Olivia?”

     “Yep, that’s us,” Olivia confirms. “Do you need some—”

     “I’m Mevia!” She cuts Olivia off and sticks out her hand, which Olivia shakes warily. “How do you do?”

     “Just fine,” Olivia says. Something about this woman is off. Axel doesn’t like it.

     “What brings you to Beacontown?” he asks, crossing his arms. Mevia gives him a quick once-over. It looks like she’s calculating something.

     “I’m looking for you two!” she says, maintaining her saccharine demeanor. “And you’re looking for Jesse, right?”

     All of Axel’s hesitation flies out the window. “You know where they are?! Wh-what about Lukas and Petra and Ivor?”

     “Oh yes, I know where they all are!” Mevia says. “I barely escaped, myself.”

     “Escaped? What do you mean? Are they in danger?” Olivia says frantically.

     “I’m afraid so,” Mevia sighs. “A crazed psychopath has them imprisoned. Every day, he puts them through his ‘games.’”

     “What kind of games?” Axel’s heart is racing right along with his mind. Maybe they can win these games? Maybe that’s the price of freedom? If it’s anything like what he faced in Boomtown, he knows he can handle it.

     “Deadly ones,” Mevia says. “Ones that few have survived. That’s why we need your help. Jesse’s made a deal: if they win, everyone participating in the games goes free.”

     “What are we waiting for?” Axel says, eager. “Lead the way!” Olivia nods enthusiastically, and Mevia grins. She leads them out of the hall, out of Beacontown, and towards the jungle.

     Something’s nagging in the back of Axel’s mind. Something some might call common sense. Deep down, he knows it’s stupid to trust a random woman who they just met, but he doesn’t care. He wants to see his friends again. Mevia says she knows where they are and that they need his and Olivia’s help, and that’s good enough for him. She’s odd, to be sure, but then again, maybe she isn’t from around here. Maybe she’s from an entirely different place. Maybe she’s from wherever that portal led to.

     Just as Beacontown becomes a distant dot on the horizon, Mevia stops in her tracks. It’s so sudden that Axel nearly crashes into her. She turns to face them slowly, a grin spreading across her face.

     “Uh, what’s up?” Axel says. The nagging in his mind gets louder.

     “I can’t believe how easy this was,” Mevia says, shaking her head while her grin grows ever wider. “All I had to do was mention Jesse and you two come  _ running.  _ Really! You’re hysterical!” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a glass bottle. The substance inside looks like iridescent smoke. “Oh, well. Fun time’s over. Say goodnight!”

     “What are you—”

     The words have barely left Axel’s mouth when Mevia hurls the bottle to the ground and takes a leap backwards. Glass shards cut at Axel’s ankles, and the smoke swirls around both him and Olivia. It smells like chamomile and lavender. The scent is so strong that it makes Axel’s head fuzzy. He hears a dull thud and sees Olivia on the ground in a heap. As he reaches for her, he loses his balance and collapses into the grass. The last thing he sees before going unconscious is the wicked glint in Mevia’s eyes.

     When Axel wakes up, he’s surrounded by obsidian.

**Author's Note:**

> Mevia is a BITCH
> 
> Like I said before, sorry for the long wait! I should have the next chapter of Feel A Little Rush, Baby up soon!!


End file.
